On many occasions, I have come across Police officers arresting an individual not because of what he had done – but because of what they had done to him i.e incidents in which the Police inflict serious injuries on an individual and then decide to arrest and detain him in an attempt to ‘justify’ or explain away their use of force upon him. Just such a nightmare scenario was inflicted on my client Michael, late one night in September 2020, as I will discuss in this week’s blog.
Michael was travelling as a passenger in a friend’s car. Having driven to a nearby garage to buy refreshments, the two men returned and parked up in a road near Michael’s friend’s house in Wakefield. Owing to the time of night, the street was deserted.
As Michael exited the front passenger side door of the car, he saw a man dressed in black. It was not immediately apparent to Michael that this man was a Police Officer, although he later discovered him to be PC Pearson of West Yorkshire Police.
When Michael first saw PC Pearson, the Officer was standing at the driver’s door of Michael’s friend’s car (which was open) and appeared to be leaning into the car.
Not realising at first that Pearson was a Police Officer, Michael walked around the front of the car and asked him what he was doing. Rather than explaining his purpose, PC Pearson responded in an aggressive tone “I can open it if I want to” (i.e. referring to the fact that he had opened the driver’s door).
Michael queried this. Again, rather than explaining what he was doing, PC Pearson told Michael to “jog on”, again in an aggressive tone.
Michael asked PC Pearson what he meant by this, to which the Officer responded “Jog on, don’t turn around and get attitude with me”.
Michael was perplexed by the man’s confrontational tone and queried what he was on about. By this time, Michael was standing a normal conversational distance from PC Pearson, with the open driver’s side door of the car in between them.
Becoming more heated and aggressive, PC Pearson shouted at Michael “Back off now”.
Michael had neither behaved nor spoken aggressively to the Officer and indeed there was a car door between then. His only offence, it seems, was to question what the Officer was doing.
PC Pearson shouted “Back off away from me” again, and at greater volume.
Michael now queried “Who are you shouting at?” and muttered, under his breath and at such a low volume that it could not be heard on PC Pearson’s Body worn Camera footage (BWC), the words “silly cunt”.
PC Pearson now grabbed Michael’s jacket, shouting at him, “Don’t you turn around and call me a silly cunt. You’re getting locked up lad”. The Officer then repeated “You’re getting locked up for calling me a silly cunt”.
PC Pearson now continued his assault of Michael, by pushing my client up against the car, with the Officer’s right fist pressing into the area of Michael’s throat.
Another male Officer approached, now known to be PC Corden.
Michael was bewildered and frightened by what was happening to him. PC Pearson forced Michael’s head downwards with his hand, and in a panic – seeking to stop himself from falling to the ground – Michael instinctively grabbed out to hold onto something. In doing this, he may have inadvertently made contact with the taser on PC Corden’s belt. PC Corden now started shouting “Let go of my taser, let go of my fucking taser”, whilst punching Michael repeatedly in the face (or “used a striking technique to the face” as the Police’s doublespeak jargon would have it – as if such delicate phrasing could retrospectively pull those vicious punches).
Michael was then handcuffed and taken to the Officers’ car. He was already experiencing a lot of facial pain, particularly around his right eye, and bleeding heavily from his nose.
Stunned and bewildered, Michael was now taken under arrest to Havertop Police Station. There a custody record was made which stated that Michael had been arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
Necessity for the arrest was recorded in the Custody record as “Allow the prompt and effective investigation; prevent an offence against public decency”.
Michael was detained all night before being interviewed at approximately 9.45am. Even after his interview however he was not released until almost 1pm. He was never charged with any offence.
My review of the evidence
After Michael contacted me for help I obtained and reviewed the available evidence in this case, and in particular the Officers’ body worn camera footage.
Having considered the same, I was strongly of the opinion that PC Pearson could not reasonably have suspected Michael of having committed a “Public Order” offence, for the following reasons –
• Michael muttered a swear word under his breath, at such low volume that it could hardly be heard on the BWC footage;
• In the circumstances, there was no possibility that anyone other than PC Pearson, PC Corden or Michael’s friend was able to hear Michael’s words;
• The officers themselves at no point indicated that either of them were caused harassment, alarm or distress by Michael’s words or behaviour, and in subsequent statements neither of them said that they were caused harassment, alarm or distress by Michael’s words or behaviour;
• Both PC Pearson and PC Corden themselves used ‘obscenities’, shouted at high volume and in an aggressive tone, during the course of the incident.
Furthermore, and in any event, Michael’s arrest was simply unnecessary because –
• There was no reason to believe that, had he been asked for his name and address, Michael would not have given this information, and any offence that PC Pearson believed him to have committed, could have been investigated in due course without the need for arrest;
• There was no possible reason to believe that Michael would commit an offence against public decency if not arrested. There was a stark disparity between Michael’s ‘sotto voce’ muttering with the aggressive shouting of obscenities by both of the Police Officers;
It was, in my opinion, plain from the body worn camera footage that Michael was arrested not out of any belief that his arrest was necessary, but because of PC Pearson’s antecedently aggressive attitude and personal dislike of what Michael had muttered, combined with the need for the Officers to justify the battery they had committed against him.
Police Brutality
Michael did not just suffer the indignity and loss of liberty of a wrongful arrest as a result of the actions of PCs Pearson and Corden – he had been badly beaten by the Officers and was left with significant physical and psychological injuries.
Immediately after the incident, Michael was in pain and bleeding from his nose. He developed significant bruising and swelling to his face leading him to have to attend A&E two days after the incident. A hospital CT scan of Michael’s facial bones was reported as showing “Right orbital floor and anterior maxillary wall fracture”.
Michael was subsequently further examined by a Maxillofacial Surgeon who diagnosed a “Right naso-orbital fracture with medial displacement of the right nasal pillar”. He was also suffering from blurred vision and was referred for an ophthalmology assessment.
My client subsequently had to undergo open reduction and internal fixation of his nasal fracture and nasal septoplasty in October 2020 though, even afterwards, was left with symptoms of discomfort in the form of headaches, numbness of his mouth and a deviated nasal septum which interfered with his breathing.
Michael was also subsequently diagnosed as suffering from a Phobic Anxiety Disorder in relation to the Police and was, distressingly, left with a right eye more sunken into his face than his left, causing him problems with his vision.
Frankly, Michael had suffered the type of injuries that might have been inflicted upon him by late-night muggers; all at the hands of the Police.
A Police Complaint ‘Whitewash’
The Police officers had behaved like arrogant bullies, and in my opinion, the evidence was there for all to see on the Body Worn Camera footage, but his legitimate complaint was given typical ‘Whitewash’ treatment by West Yorkshire Professional Standards Department. Some of the highlights – or should that be ‘low lights’? – of the complaint response were as follows-
• The report that was prepared into the complaint considered the Body Worn Camera footage, but asserted, contrary to what can be seen on that footage, that “…the evidence does not support [Michael’s] view that PC Pearson was immediately rude…”;
• The report says, contrary to what can be seen on the BWC footage, that “..[Michael]…moved into PC Pearson’s personal space and was heard (sic) direct vile and abusive language towards PC Pearson”;
• The report is drafted in terms calculated to suggest that Michael’s grabbing hold of something that happened to be the taser was something other than an attempt to prevent himself from falling, contrary to what can be observed on the BWC footage;
• The report likewise refers to Michael having shown ‘aggression’, contrary to what can be observed on the BWC footage;
• The report fails to acknowledge that the alleged ‘vile and abusive language’ by Michael was in reality an ‘under the breath’ comment and completely glosses over the fact that PC Corden himself shouted obscenities.
But the truth comes out in the ‘Wash’
West Yorkshire Police followed up their rejection of Michael’s complaint by also denying liability in response to the letter of claim which I sent on his behalf.
Undismayed, and very familiar with the Police playbook in these matters, I reassured Michael and advised him to issue Court proceedings against the Chief Constable for both wrongful arrest and assault and battery.
Despite filing a Defence to the claim which ostensibly maintained a complete denial of any wrongdoing, West Yorkshire then made overtures of settlement – starting with an offer of £17,500 damages. This starkly contrasts with their failure to make any offer of settlement prior to commencement of the Court proceedings.
On my advice, Michael rejected that offer and we continued with the proceedings; eventually bringing the Police to book with an agreed settlement of £35,000 damages for Michael’s injuries and loss of liberty. I was proud to have achieved justice for a very deserving client in the face of both Police ‘Red Mist’ and ‘White Wash’ – i.e the front line officer’s aggression and loss of temper combined with the back room officer’s desire to cover up his colleague’s misdeeds, which are the dual problems at the heart of many of the cases which I handle.
Once again, we are left to ponder what confidence the public should place in the internal investigations of Police ‘Professional Standards’? West Yorkshire Police maintained that their officers had done no wrong – and yet did not want the objective evidence of what had occurred to come before a Judge and Jury. I think we can all draw our own lesson from that.
I will let my client have the last word in this blog by quoting here from the kind review which he provided afterwards. It is being able to make a difference like this which makes my job so worthwhile-
“I didn’t realise how lucky I was at the time but after working with Iain for over 2 years we recently settled my case for a sum way more than I would have thought possible at the start.
Fighting through the lies and deceit of the police and seeing it all the way through to the end, when in honesty, it wasn’t always looking good for us.
Iain is fearless and I couldn’t have wished for a better representative of my case, he exceeded what I had hoped for from the start.
A huge thank you to Iain Gould for taking on my case, representing me and finalising my case with a very satisfactory outcome.”
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